In large-scale battles, military strategy is always paramount. Standing on the tower, Li Ji issued orders one after another. The entire battlefield, with nearly two million people on both sides, was commanded with ease and order, as if they were his own arms.

Qin Mu was capable of commanding, but he always planned ahead, then divided the troops into many teams, each led by a general, to complete the predetermined objectives, leaving behind reinforcements.

He couldn't do what Li Ji did, remotely commanding the troops on the battlefield, deciding which direction to charge in and which positions to hold in advance. Even though his side had fewer men, through skillful maneuvering, he was actually using superior forces to kill the enemy.

Just as predicted, the White-Eyed Wolf Clan did not have many crossbow bolts, and Li Ji had made targeted arrangements to defend against them, resulting in minimal casualties.

On the contrary, Li Ji of the Tang Dynasty went all out, mobilizing his navy to the shore and bringing over the ballistae and crossbows from the warships. These new crossbows were specially prepared for powerful beasts, and even top experts dared not take them head-on. A single shot could clear a path through the crowd.

The White-Eyed Wolf Clan tried to fight desperately with sheer numbers, but they were no match for the barrage of crossbow bolts. The 20,000 crossbowmen from the navy advanced in a volley of arrows, breaking through the enemy's main formation.

The ground was covered with arrows, as densely as a rice paddy. The corpses of the White-Eyed Wolf Clan covered the earth, leaving no place to hide or escape from the rain of arrows.

In terms of individual combat ability, the White-Eyed Wolf Clan can be said to be the weakest among the wolf clans, not to mention that the Tang Dynasty also dispatched several thousand top experts.

Li Ji certainly wouldn't waste the role of top experts. He directly divided the troops into teams of a hundred men each, led by top experts, forming thousands of cone-shaped formations. This perfectly utilized the individual abilities of the orcs and avoided their weakness of poor teamwork.

Thousands of powerful troops roamed the battlefield, decimating the enemy and making it impossible for them to form a unified army for combat.

In just one day, the White-Eyed Wolf Clan suffered a complete defeat and fled into the city, intending to use the city as a base and a large number of people to buy time.

"Pingchengjing, quite the boast, daring to call itself the capital; a bunch of stray dogs, still trying to put up a stubborn resistance! How naive!" As the army approached the city, Li Ji took a closer look and sneered disdainfully.

"Hehe! A frog in a well, how could it know the power of the Tang Dynasty! This is not a thousand years ago, and besides, compared to the Qin Dynasty, they are not even as good as bandits." Qin Mu laughed in agreement.

Warfare a thousand years ago was vastly different from today's, let alone for these people who hadn't even mastered a fraction of what the Qin Dynasty had learned. They lacked the Qin cavalry, the Qin's most powerful crossbow formations, and the fearless Qin warriors. What did they have to fight against the Tang Dynasty?

Fully armored soldiers did indeed appear on the city wall. Qin Mu speculated that this was because their morale was low, so they were using their strongest soldiers for defense. However, the armor was merely leather and bronze.

When the Tang Dynasty attacked a city, it never used human lives as a means of defense. Catapults were brought out, crossbow formations held the line, and tall arrow towers stood by.

"Boom! Boom! Boom!" Huge rocks crashed down on Heijō-kyō.

Little did they expect that the Tang Dynasty's catapults could begin attacking from 500 meters away. In an instant, the million wolves were pelted with bullets, suffering numerous casualties.

The catapults kept hurling stones, causing the ground of Heijō-kyō to shake violently. Before long, not a single person could be seen standing on the city wall.

The Tang Dynasty was in no hurry to attack; they simply and methodically began to smash the city walls.

The White-Eyed Wolf Clan was naturally unwilling to sit idly by and wait for their doom. They organized a large number of people and stormed out of the city, intending to destroy the catapults.

Unfortunately, the crossbow formations suppressed them, killing as many as they came out, including their small cavalry unit, which was utterly useless against the ballistae as thick as an arm.

"So it was just a showpiece!" Looking at the corpse on the ground and the bronze armor that had been pierced, Qin Mu couldn't help but shake his head and mock.

The seemingly imposing bronze armor of the White-Eyed Wolf Clan was actually just a thin layer of copper, barely enough to withstand a few arrows. With the inner leather lining, it offered decent protection against swords and blades, but against crossbow bolts and long-handled sabers, it was no different from paper. Qin Mu didn't even bother to look at it, and even disdained cleaning up the battlefield, giving it all away as a reward to the arriving beastmen.

……………

"Kill!" A loud shout shattered the silence of the night.

"Release the arrows!" A voice rang out in the darkness.

"Swish! Swish! Swish!"

"Ah! Ah! Ah!"

The sound of arrows piercing the air rang out, followed by screams of agony.

"Charge! Charge out! Those who want to live, charge!" someone shouted.

"Hehe! I've been waiting for you!" Li Ji said confidently in the torchlight.

"The Grand Steward is truly a master strategist! I admire him!"

"Huai Dao, you don't need to flatter me. Didn't you already guess that the White-Eyed Wolf Clan wanted to escape?" Li Ji shook his head and smiled slightly.

"I never expected it to be tonight."

“They know they can’t hold Heijō-kyō. They won’t wait until the city falls before fleeing. We’ve been attacking continuously for three days. Although we haven’t stormed the city, the entire army has been mobilized, and they are exhausted. So this is the most opportune time. If we wait any longer, the morale of both sides will be even more different once the walls are breached,” Li Ji explained.

"So that's how it is!"

"To be honest, I admire your methods even more, Huai Dao. I never imagined you had so many ways to defend yourself. These guys made a mistake by choosing to escape at night. If they had run during the day, some of them might have managed to get away." Li Ji shook his head and sighed, a look of sympathy on his face.

It turned out that Li Ji's plan to lure the White-Eyed Wolf Clan out of their hole was to eliminate them when they escaped. Qin Mu, on the other hand, proposed several defensive measures.

Numerous ropes were used to form tripwires and hastily made makeshift chevaux-de-frise; wooden sticks were planted diagonally in the ground; the pits were not very high; and a dense array of short sticks were used.

These things don't cause much damage, but in the dark, you can't see anything on the ground, and they can easily fall down. Normally, it wouldn't matter, maybe just a minor injury. But now we're breaking through enemy lines! If you suddenly find yourself surrounded by fallen enemies, rushing to the front and then awkwardly discovering that you only have a few dozen people scattered around you, how can you dare to fight them?

Moreover, this was not very physically harmful, but extremely humiliating. Falling down a few times didn't cause serious injuries, but it had a huge impact on morale! They had no idea where to run. In the darkness, it was chaotic and disorganized. It seemed like they were surrounded by enemies. The phrase "the wind howls and the grass and trees are like soldiers" best describes it.

The White-Eyed Wolf Clan broke through the encirclement from all sides, stumbling and falling all the way. Countless members of the clan were separated from the enemy along the way, and when they finally encountered the defending forces, they had little fighting strength left.

Moreover, Li Ji's uncanny foresight greatly shocked the beastmen. When they saw that the enemy had really come, they were not afraid at all, but their morale was high.

Having made preparations, they were extremely thorough. Hundreds of thousands of people completely surrounded the outskirts of Heisei-kyo, sealing off all the areas that needed to be sealed off. The simple defensive fortifications of the past now served as a divine punishment, and the White-Eyed Wolf Clan fell in despair before them.

Some of the White-Eyed Wolf Clan members, seeing that they could not break through, tried to escape back to the city. However, when they arrived at the city, they found that the city gates were tightly closed and the banners on the city walls had been changed to the characters "Tang".

There's nothing more to say! Surrender! The White-Eyed Wolf Clan, whose morale had already plummeted, made the best choice.

After daybreak, Qin Mu received news that the Xu clan, with their most trusted confidants, broke through the siege, only to fall into the trap that Li Ji had set for them. More than 100,000 people were burned to ashes in a great fire!

"Haha! Your Majesty will be very happy again this time!" Looking at the mountain of silver, Li Ji couldn't help but burst into laughter.

Each city yielded a large amount of silver, but none could compare to Heijo-kyo, the capital of a million wolf clan members, which could be said to have gathered the collections of most of the White-Eyed Wolf Clan.

"War! That's the most lucrative thing, as long as you can win at the lowest cost." Qin Mu nodded and sighed.

"Huai Dao, do you think we could continue hiring the beastmen to deal with those guys on the Northeast Peninsula?" Li Ji stroked his beard and said thoughtfully.

"Of course! I believe His Majesty will not let the beastmen go after seeing the spoils of this expedition. Think about it, we can eliminate the enemy without losing any of our Tang soldiers, even if it doesn't make money."

"Now that we have such a large income, let alone His Majesty, who among the officials of the court would object?" Qin Mu said with a smile.

"Yes, yes! That's good. After we clear out Wolf Island, we'll submit a petition to request permission to fight!" Li Ji nodded.

"In my opinion, we don't need to wait until then. We can write to His Majesty now to increase support and rewards for the Beastmen, so that they can defeat their opponents. Then we can gather our forces and attack Goguryeo on the northeastern peninsula. By then, we will have almost completed our mission, and we can then cross the sea and attack from both sides!" Qin Mu suggested.

"Hehe, this is a good idea! Let's use one wolf to devour another, and reap the benefits without lifting a finger," Li Ji agreed.

"With the strength of our Great Tang Dynasty, we can completely integrate these surrounding tribes, concentrate our superior forces, and eliminate the enemy one by one," Qin Mu analyzed.

"Borrow them with benefits; these tribes have never seen such great profits before, they will surely be tempted!"

"The key is that they can weaken their strength without them even realizing it, and by the time they react, it will be too late!"

"Then there must be a huge reward that will make them so envious they'll lose their minds."

"It seems we don't lack that kind of thing!" Qin Mu said with a smirk.

"Ha ha ha ha!"

"Hehehe!" The two of them talked back and forth, and they figured out the whole thing. They also believed that Li Shimin would definitely agree.

In the Battle of Heijō-kyō, the White-Eyed Wolf Clan suffered over 600,000 casualties and captured over 800,000, making it an unprecedented victory. Capturing 800,000 prisoners in one battle was something that had never happened before. As their leader, Li Ji was radiant and walked with a brisk pace during this period.

This is something that must be recorded in history, and at the highest level. No military strategist in the future can avoid mentioning him, so he was eager to push forward the campaign against Goguryeo as soon as possible.

After three days of rest, Li Ji couldn't wait to begin commanding his army to clear Wolf Island. With the main force suffering a crushing defeat and less than a hundred escaping, the White-Eyed Wolves along the way fled at the mere mention of his name, surrendering without a second thought!

This is mainly because the orcs are too bloodthirsty; they almost wiped out any cities or tribes that refused to surrender. Of course! The orcs have a good habit: they rarely kill women, because in their hearts, women are wealth.

…………

The battle report from Wolf Island was sent to the Tang Dynasty, shocking the entire nation. Li Shimin was stunned, thinking he had misheard. He took the report, rubbed his eyes, and confirmed several times that he had not misread it before finally letting out a sigh of relief.

With over 600,000 killed or wounded and over 800,000 captured in a single battle, he didn't know if this was unprecedented in history, but it was certainly the first time such a great victory had been recorded. Such a resounding victory, occurring during his reign, he could imagine how history would record it!

In the fifteenth year of the Zhenguan era, Emperor Li Shimin issued an edict to conquer the Wolf Clan, appointing Duke Li Ji of Yingguo as Grand Commander. In the Battle of Pingchengjing, the main force of the White-Eyed Wolf Clan was annihilated, with over 600,000 killed, over 800,000 soldiers captured, and countless civilians taken prisoner! ...

"Haha! Haha!" Thinking of these things, Li Shimin couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Congratulations, Your Majesty! Congratulations!"

"Congratulations, Your Majesty! Congratulations, Your Majesty!" Seeing Li Shimin so excited, the court officials, recovering from their shock, hurriedly offered their congratulations.

Recently, there have indeed been continuous battle reports arriving in the capital, and slaves have been constantly being sent to the Central Plains to be used for road construction and mining in the Jiangnan region. However, the fact that so many were wiped out at once still seems unbelievable. After all, the Tang Dynasty only mobilized a few thousand skilled warriors and naval forces. The twelve guards near Chang'an were not even mobilized, and there was no sense of tension from the war. It was as if everything was normal, making it easy to forget that the Tang Dynasty was still at war.

Come to think of it, the troops dispatched were from the orcs, and the supplies were transferred from Jiangnan. Apart from receiving some news and data, Chang'an City didn't feel anything at all.

Moreover, in many people's minds, the White-Eyed Wolf Clan is just a small race on an overseas island, so isn't it normal to wipe them out? If it weren't for the slaves, no one would even be willing to support sending troops.

"Hahaha! Hahaha!" Li Shimin picked up another battle report, glanced at it, and laughed loudly again.

The courtiers looked at him with some confusion, not understanding why the emperor was so excited.

"Your Majesty, what makes you so happy? May I share in your joy?" Fang Xuanling asked, bowing respectfully.

"Three hundred ships carrying silver seized from the Japanese islands are being transported to Chang'an," Li Shimin said with a broad smile.

"Three hundred ships!"

"How many?"

"How is that possible!"

Upon hearing Li Shimin's words, everyone was stunned once again. Some even thought they had misheard and pulled the people next to them to ask.

"His Majesty seems to have mentioned three hundred ships of silver!" someone replied, swallowing hard.

"Wow! Is Wolf Island really that rich?" someone asked, snorting heavily and with bloodshot eyes.

"It's already on its way to Chang'an, so it should be genuine!"

"How come Qin Huaidao always makes a fortune every time he goes on an expedition!"

"Yes! It's a pity that Wolf Island is far overseas, and we can't reach it from there!"

"He shouldn't get all the good things."

"That's not right. The Duke of Ying and the Duke of Qin have conquered a lot of land through their wars. The court should send some people to help manage it and relieve their pressure."

"Absolutely! Absolutely!" The court was abuzz with discussion, and many were also moved by it.

Many were envious, and those with quick minds were thinking about how to get a share. Judging by their own experience, they didn't believe that Li Ji and Qin Mu wouldn't line their own pockets. According to their estimation, since they were willing to offer three hundred ships of silver to the court, they must have kept a similar amount for themselves.

Just think about such a huge fortune; even a family that has accumulated wealth for thousands of years wouldn't have that much. For a moment, many people felt their heads were spinning, their eyes were red, and their minds were racing.